skull-cracker

In the belt of each was a skull-cracker -- a sort of sling stone with a long handle -- and

Pathfinders of the West Being the Thrilling Story of the Adventures of the Men Who Discovered the Great Northwest: Radisson, La Vérendrye, Lewis and Clark 1903

To guard against an unseen foe, you take to the centre of the street -- nasty and muddy though it should be, -- for there you fancy yourself safe from the blow of a skull-cracker, hurled by an unseen hand on watch under a gateway.

Picturesque Quebec : a sequel to Quebec past and present 1868

Anyhow, there was Robert the Bruce -- he was a king, warn't he, an 'a skull-cracker?

The Battery and the Boiler Adventures in Laying of Submarine Electric Cables 1859

"The liquor men who tried to murder Mr. Smith, the President of the Brome County Alliance, by stunning him with a skull-cracker, and then leaving him on the track, failed in that cowardly and brutal attempt, but have escaped punishment at the hands of the authorities, who seem to be, as usual, perfectly helpless in the matter.

The Story of a Dark Plot or Tyranny on the Frontier A.L.O. C.